Abstract Book of the 7th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2025
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Who Tells the Tale? Gender, Ideology, and Narrative Framing in Dream of the Red Chamber Adaptations
Man Dong
ABSTRACT:
Dream of the Red Chamber (1791), a novel written by Qing dynasty author Cao Xueqin, is widely considered as the pinnacle of Chinese classical literature. During the Qing Dynasty, numerous operatic adaptations based on Dream of the Red Chamber emerged. This paper employs a feminist narratological framework to analyze gendered patterns in Qing dynasty operatic adaptations of Dream of the Red Chamber by male and female playwrights. Male dominance in authorship in Qing adaptations of Dream of the Red Chamber reflects the near absence of female playwrights during this era. A rare exception is Wu Lanzheng’s Jianghengqiu (The Autumn of the Red Chamber). The analysis reveals three key findings. First, adaptations by male playwrights largely conformed to dominant ideology norms, reinforcing Confucian gender hierarchies through the construction of narrative authority and exhibiting distinct characteristics of “gendered narration.” Second, female playwrights like Wu Lanzheng focused more on the trajectories of marginalized characters, enacting forms of “coded resistance” within established frameworks by expanding narrative spaces for minor characters and reconstructing scenes of women’s private dialogues. Third, due to gender biases in historical documentation, most adaptations by female playwrights have been lost or inadequately preserved, leaving their creative contributions in a prolonged state of invisibility.This study contribution is its pioneering, systematic application of feminist narratology to the analysis of traditional Chinese opera adaptations. This approach reveals the complex interaction between narrative form and gender politics. Furthermore, by highlighting female-authored works obscured by dominant literary histories, this study offers a fresh perspective on the gendered genealogy of Chinese opera.
Keywords: coded resistance; feminist narratology; gendered narration; Qing Dynasty opera adaptations; Dream of the Red Chamber